This is the first in a promised documentary series, and contains three CDs
and a DVD. The performances are all Dresden radio performances, starting in
1945, and a large swathe of them has not been previously released, though
collectors will know that some of these excerpts have made it to commercial
recordings; some of the Hans Hopf sides have certainly been available before,
for example, and the same is true for a few others. However it remains true
to say that the majority appear for the first time in this form.

The repertoire embraces Mozart, the Italians, Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Flotow,
Strauss, and Dvorák, amongst others, and of course the extract from Fidelio
that lends its text to the sub-title of the set. The Italian representation
is very strong; and whilst there is some Strauss, there is no Wagner.

The arias and scenes may be well-known but not all the singers are, and this
is one way in which this release will prove attractive. One such was the short
lived Werner Faulhaber who died at 25 in a mountain fall, and who sings Mozart
with a certain ebullience and power. Much better known are the two resident
Dresden basses, Kurt Böhme and Gottlob Frick, who formed a formidable team
in the city and whose every appearance supports posterity’s view of them;
the former splendid in the Merry Widow, in particular. In this scene we can
also hear from the excellent Elfriede Weidlich. One singer who was with the
company for decades was Arno Schellenberg, but his Rossini I find crude and
exaggerated, and there’s some tape damage. Perhaps this is a good moment to
note that the sound quality, whilst obviously variable, is nevertheless first
class for the time and circumstances involved.

Helena Rott is an uneven artist here – very good in places but, as in Martha,
unconvincing. Tenor Werner Liebling is not especially elegant or velvet-toned
in Mozart. Christel Goltz is another in-and-out singer. Often she is fine
but her Verdi is patchy and out of tune in La forza del destino, but much
improved in Don Carlos, which was taped three years earlier. Bernd Aldenhoff
is a personable tenor.

A sequence has been constructed from La Bohème extracts sung by various singers
between 1945 and 1951. Hopf, who is usually a reliable singer, is a bit unwieldy
in his appearance here. There is also a hefty 27 minute slice from Aida with
Goltz, Rott and Aldenhoff from October 1947, which impresses. Another longer
extract is the final scene from Salome (Goltz, Karén, Aldenhoff, 1948 conducted
by Keilberth). Elfride Trötschel sings softly and splendidly in her Rusalka
extract, of which she made a well known studio recording. One could also mention
the young and impressive Lisa Otto in Mozart.

The DVD is in German with no subtitles in any other language. It includes
a DEFA documentary film ‘Dresden – Aufbau im Osten’ (1946); ‘My Dresden Years’
– memories from Joseph Keilberth, Christel Goltz, Lisa Otto; ‘Cristel Goltz
– privat’ (1949) plus a bonus of Elfride Trötschel singing Du lieber Mond
with the Staatskapelle, Dresden and Kempe. It’s a powerful affair, well watch
watching.

Finally a word about the book that goes with this set; booklet is inadequate
to describe the 241 book in German and English translation, which has been
compiled, produced and indeed reproduced with painstaking intelligence. It’s
a vivid document, profusely illustrated in black and white, and in colour,
with full recording details, artist biographies and background to the enterprise.
It really is an outstanding piece of work.

In short, this set collates radio performances of some considerable rarity,
and presents them in a superbly documented way.

Jonathan Woolf
Radio performances of some considerable rarity presented in a superbly documented
way.